Stress, Stress and More Stress....We Need to Avoid It......

Hi All,
Today I am going to introduce to you my arch nemesis........the stress beast. Yes she lives inside my head and often rears up to try and take me over with her evil talons. She is a wild animal not to be reckoned with and one that causes me not only mental exhaustion but makes my Lupus flare up. So why am I introducing her to you today? Well quite simply because stress is one of the biggest hurdles we have to overcome in life and can be extremely damaging for anyone health, whether you have a preexisting condition or not.

What is it about stress that is so damaging?

Firstly, dealing with any chronic disease is stressful and can cause further health complications that I will talk about later. Mainly though, stress is damaging to everyone's bodies and this is why we all need to combat the beast when he or she is determined to beat you down, whether you are ill before hand or not.
Stress, much like many mental health illnesses does not just stop at the brain, oh no it will take over your entire body. Even if the symptoms that arise may seem random and disconnected they could all be traced back to the evil stress monster. Emotional symptoms of stress can be just as difficult to deal with as the physical ones. I know for me I will tend to just break down and cry...a lot of crying. I am not very good at coping with stress which is why it's more important than ever to try and keep it under control.
Emotional signs that you may stressed out to the maximum can include;

1. Crying over things that wouldn't normally upset you (yep that one I can tick)
2. Brain fog or the inability to make rational, functional thoughts (also I can tick that one)
3. Loss of self confidence and/or self worth (oh and that one I know well)
4. Increased irritability, anger or depression (Oh I will get very ratty)

There are many more than this, but these are the ones that hit me the hardest. the main thing for e is how much more intense my brain fog is. It is almost like I am enveloped in a cloud of cognitive loss, a really frightening place to be at times. It can also be isolating in itself; if I get really stressed I will hide away because I can no longer process my thoughts.
Physical signs that you may be stressed out;

1. Increased heart rate (mine is going mental over here)
2. Loss of appetite or the opposite (I cannot eat anything at all)
3. Stomach upsets (as if Lupus wasn't bad enough on its own)
4. headaches (oh yes I know them well)
5. Blurred vision (Lying in a darkened room is a specialty of mine)

Again there are more than just these, but I can only write what I know.
Serious complications of stress.......here's where I put my serious face on for a minute
Stress is one of the biggest causes of flare ups = FACT. It can lead to medications not working correctly, heightened pain and in severe cases can cause strokes and heart attacks. Sorry to go there people but it happens. If you don't have lupus then it can still lead to eventualities that no one wants to think about, in fact the majority of people suffering from severe stress can go on to experience health conditions as a direct result. For something that is classed as an emotion then it can be a totally devastating one.
For many of us with a chronic illness, you may find that even the smallest amount of stress can cause unpleasant symptoms to be worse than ever. I know for me it is the blood pressure and pain levels that rise to a rate where they are completely uncontrollable. I also find that my general fatigue, brain fog and joint swelling is much worse. Eventually, if i remain that stressed I will go into a full flare situation.....this has happened before.
What to do to try and avoid stress.....
This is probably one of the hardest things for me to do, I find it incredibly difficult to not get stressed out. I think maybe it is my personality, or it is simply that I struggle to cope with stress in a productive way. However over the years I have had to learn how to change this because stress will make me more ill than I already am and I have no energy for it anyway.
There are various things that cause me stress, ordinary day to day things such as money, work etc – these are not an issue and are perfectly normal stresses. For me the issue is when I don’t tackle these small things and end up with them having built up over days or even weeks. For me I can tell exactly when I am reaching my stress limit because I begin to wake up feeling more pain, more overall stiffness and throbbing headaches. If I were to leave it then I would begin to experience more severe symptoms such as blurred vision – this is when I know I have gone too far.
Now there are times when stress cannot be avoided, so I have started to formulate a plan that goes a little like this……..
Recognise the stresser….figuring out what is causing the stress is almost half the battle2       Deal with the stresser….if it is money then I need to budget better, if it is work then I need to organize better and so on.3          Let it go….oh this is the thing I am worst at….letting things go….but once they are dealt with I have to make sure that I forget them and move on.
What I do when it all gets too much for me…I am only human and there are times when I can’t deal with everything that is going on, including having an illness that causes stresses of its own. So sometimes I am in an impossible situation where everything seems to be too much. Well this is when I lose it big time.
Over the years I have tried many things to help but only found two that actually work; talking about it and sleeping. So that is the best advice I can give, always talk about the fact that you are stressed out and ill….maybe tell your boss, best friend, husband….whoever needs to know. You don’t have to explain it unless you want to you just have to say it.
Finally get as much sleep as you can. If this means you have to miss out on things and cancel plans then so be it, it’s your health at the end of the day.